Boy George pulled from West End performance run after releasing pro-Israel song (www.thenational.scot)

submitted 2 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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Boy George has been pulled off a West End performance days before he was set to take the stage as his manager scrambles to minimise backlash to a pro-Israel song.

Earlier this week the former Culture Club frontman released "We Will Dance Again", which featured the opening line "you say genocide, I said war, when you're attacked, that's what the army is for".

He goes on to describe Israel's assault as having got "ugly", before saying that it has done so because he "knows you want to kill every last one of us," referring to Jewish people living in Israel.

The release led to fierce backlash against the English singer. His manager, Paul Kemsley, has now released statement saying he has made the decision to pull Boy George from a scheduled run in Andrew Llyod Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar.

He was set to play King Herod – a one-song cameo role that’s being rotated – from August 3 to 15.

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[-] Babalugats@feddit.uk 1 points 12 hours ago

“you say genocide, I said war, when you’re attacked, that’s what the army is for”.

To quote one of his earlier songs..

"war is stupid and people are stupid.. This world of hate must be designed for you It matters what you say, it matters what you do

So the idiot has gone from war being stupid to saying it is needed. He is still proving that people are stupid though.

[-] DonkeyStar@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Boy George was convicted of imprisoning an escort and beating him with a chain, so he probably feels a bit of kinship with the invaders.

[-] Avicenna@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago

Read the legal issues here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_George

Israel is in such deep shit that this is the only level of celebrity that they can bribe to promote them lol.

[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 5 points 22 hours ago

Obviously George has lost his goddamn mind on drugs again, but isn’t having an apologist for the slaughter of children actually pretty incredible casting for Herod?

[-] JAPHacake@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago

What a nob

[-] tacosanonymous@mander.xyz 46 points 2 days ago

"Pro-Israel" is a generous descriptor.

Genocide denying, racist, ai-slop is what it is.

[-] Zombie@feddit.uk 19 points 2 days ago

He goes on to describe Israel's assault as having got "ugly", before saying that it has done so because he "knows you want to kill every last one of us," referring to Jewish people living in Israel.

Says the English / Irish Catholic Buddhist living in London?... What?

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 2 points 2 days ago

probably refers to western population as "us".

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 10 hours ago

He means gays

[-] ODuffer@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Actions... consequences

[-] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I hated that camacamacameleon song the first f***g time I heard it. Him and his silly hats.

[-] lobut@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

The answer to your song, Boy George, is yes.

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 1 points 2 days ago

I dont know the song but picking a side in that matter seems to come with bad consequences. This has been like that for decades already.

Both sides handle things wrong but since oct 7 i kind of understand israel. Flotilla activists et. al completely forget that and that hamas was iran financed which literally swore to make jews extinct.

[-] Malyca@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago

You should educate yourself more on the subject

[-] Avicenna@programming.dev 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Except

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_support_for_Hamas

"The Israeli government has been involved in assisting or empowering the Palestinian political and military organization Hamas at various points in its history.[a] This support continued during and in spite of active military hostilities between the two sides."

This is quite often how it goes. You feed and infiltrate a radical organization and then you press the "release" button when you need a "casus belli".

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 1 points 7 hours ago

What do you think why did they support hamas? Who was the strongest political force in palestine? How was that force's stance toward israel?

[-] Avicenna@programming.dev 1 points 4 hours ago

What do you think why did they support hamas?

I have exactly written the answer to this at the end. The answer to your other two questions are in the link. Example; according to the article Israel kept supporting Hamas even when there were hostilities between them.

[-] cman6@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

I think if you read up on how Israel have treated Palestinian's over the past few decades you will see that one side is clearly abusing their position of power, and treating Palestinians as second rate citizens.

I don't even know where to begin but how about Israeli snipers shooting unarmed civilians, including children: https://factually.co/fact-checks/justice/israeli-snipers-shooting-children-f4a566

Plus there is an international arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes

[-] JillyB@beehaw.org 4 points 2 days ago

Hamas was also financed by Israel in order to sink the efforts of the PLO. The secular PLO looked like it might actually get some peaceful recognition of statehood and Israel knew a violent Islamist leadership would torpedo that. Israel has been fighting against Palestinian statehood, limiting movement of Palestinians, controlling resources, supporting "settler" bandits that colonize and kill Palestinians, etc.

Israel has been slowly taking over Palestinian land and killing their people for decades. The Palestinians can't vote in Israeli elections. Their statehood has been blocked by Israel so they have limited diplomatic solutions. What peaceful option do you propose they should have done?

The Oct 7 attacks killed about 1200 Israeli civilians and soldiers. In response, Israel has killed 1200 Hamas militants and 82,000 civilians, wounded a further 174,000, blocked humanitarian aid, leveled apartments, hospitals, schools, etc. Acting like both sides are bad when one is fighting for survival, and the other is committing a genocide is just arguing in support of genocide. If you're somehow still ignorant on this topic, I suggest you do some more digging into the history of Israel and Palestine. If you have learned about it and still support Israel then go fuck yourself.

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

peaceful option

Acknoledge the right of israel instead of sending rockets. Stop voting religious fanatics in.

fighting for survival

1951: 0.9m population 2026: 5.6m population

This amount of population is unsustainable on the land. They could only boom like this due to foreign aid. They have barely any economy themselves.

82k civillians

It's a guerilla war with undeclared combatants. Wiki acknoledges abt 80k without declaring them civillian. Anyhow 1200 hamas millitants is obviously bs. Also hamas using that war style only works with the help of civillians. They are complicit to some extend.

go fuck yourself

You know why everyone is fighting for this little pile of dirt? Religion. They all think their religion started there and want to claim the mountain theirs. There's alot of money in the pot to make you think their side is correct and you actually being so zealot about it to insult people so randomly shows.

[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 3 points 22 hours ago

Kind of saying the quiet part out loud there about the population growth. It’s about extermination of an indigenous people by colonists - same old story.

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 1 points 7 hours ago

This goes for both sides ultimately. They hate each other. However saying this is a genocide and palestineans are fighting for survival is stretched far looking at these numbers.

[-] tortina_original@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Seriously, choke on a dick.

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 1 points 2 days ago

Is that a homophobe insult now?

[-] radiouser@crazypeople.online 4 points 2 days ago

Forgive my ignorance but when you say you kind of understand Israel what exactly do you mean?

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 2 points 2 days ago

What did USA do when 9/11 happened. NATO even helped. I understand them fighting Hamas.

[-] KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 day ago

Bombing kids isn't fighting hamas

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 1 points 7 hours ago

Hamas is basically hiding behind them. I strongly reject the idea that israel specifically targets them. Since no other force stepped in to eradicate hamas with the precision of a surgeon the brute force is what we get. Also i'd like to highlight that even western countries collected donations (e.g. UN) for palestine which ultimately landed in hamas hands. So israel's trust in the international community might be tainted.

[-] zbyte64@awful.systems 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Americans lost their damn mind, and what they experienced was colonial blowback from their own foreign policies. So in many ways the comparison might be more apt than intended. But the situation with Isreal is much much worse.

[-] radiouser@crazypeople.online 9 points 1 day ago

Equating this to 9/11 skips over decades of occupation and the reality on the ground today.

Major human rights groups have stated that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute acts of genocide and extermination. Understanding the shock of an attack is one thing, but using 9/11 to excuse the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians doesn't hold up IMO.

this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2026

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